Air bags mainly consist of a bag and a gas producer which is ignited in order to inflate the air bag. It is thus necessary to guarantee above all the operatability of the gas producer. Therefore air bags and gas producers shall be dealt with in depth below, and the apparatus according to the invention shall always be dealt with in relation to the testing of the air bag gas producer.
Pressure vessels, which are mounted to a stand or frame, have been used in testing the effectiveness of air bags. The vessels generally have pressure-sealed lids. After the lid is closed, a blasting charge or a gas producer (gas cartridge) is ignited and the air bag inflation or pressure expansion is monitored. The safety of the ignition or the pressure build-up/course is checked at the same time.
In this test it is also required to check the residual matter from the blasting charge. The walls of the container are appropriately cleaned with fluid and then the fluid with blasting charge residual matter (residual gas) is analyzed.
In order to allow the fluid out of the container, the container is in most cases mounted in the stand slightly off from perpendicular to the lid, or the container is mounted in the stand so that it can be rotated in order to allow the fluid to run out after opening the lid and then to be poured into another container.
Rotatability of the container has the additional advantage that the inner walls of the container can more easily be cleaned.
One such apparatus for the testing of air bags exists, with the designation No. DE 41 43 007 A1. In the above publication, however, there are no indications how the air bags or gas producer is mounted in the container. However, it is important that the air bags always be in the same position in order to obtain exact test results; moreover, the air bags of various manufacturers differ in terms of size and mounting specifications so that the same retainer is not applicable for every air bag.